Metro 2033 review on PC: inching towards sunlight

Metro 2033 presents a bleak world of the future, with a supernatural twist. …

When you pull a gas mask over your head in Metro 2033, you adjust a dial on your watch to let you know how many minutes of breathable air you have left before you asphyxiate. Your flashlight has a charger that you have to manually pump to make sure you can see where you're going. Every bullet you find can be used as currency, but you're also operating in an incredibly hostile environment. Every round you fire limits your ability to buy what you need.

In other words, you are going to have to try very hard to survive, and the game reminds you constantly of how brutal and desperate your existence is. The game takes place in Moscow, after the bombs drop. You live in a small pocket of civilization underground, but the attacks from mutants have been growing in frequency. If that wasn't enough, there is something worse in the tunnels. Something that sings beautiful songs, and then steals your mind. This is not your average first-person shooter.

No Russian

We played the game with the voice acting in Russian, and English subtitles. This is the way to play, as it makes the world seem even more alien and harsh, at least to English-speaking ears. When you take a look at your clipboard to see where you to go next, your character actually holds up a binder with a compass attached. If you're in the dark, you'll have to flick your lighter to read the text. You'll be checking your watch to see how much air you have left. There is a pneumatic weapon that you have to pump to use, and there is a meter on the back that shows air pressure. Things look, and feel, like they are designed to be used in this environment. They may be ugly and nearly broken, but they'll keep your ass alive.

Always watch your surroundings, as death comes easily, although not cheaply. There are holes in the ground you can fall into, so pay attention to where you're walking. In one scene horrid mutants sniff around your character, and may not attack. Do you kill them, or save your ammo? Trip lines are waiting in doorways, but if you see them in time and follow the cable you can disarm them by taking out the shotgun shell that would have gone into your head. Instead of dying, you just got a little richer. Glass scattered around the floor can give your position away, as will cans hanging from strings.

You'll have to juggle all of these things when getting into gunfights with other survivors, or the mutants that live in the tunnels. Your health will recharge, but it seems to take longer than most games, and hiding while you get your strength back is a good idea if you take a few bullets. Make noise though, and your enemies will know where you are. If you're easily frustrated, this is not the game for you; as death comes often and easy. There is also no quick-save function. Checkpoints aren't terribly far apart, but playing the same section over and over can become maddening.

The trouble is in the gun play

Metro 2033 creates a world. It's not a pretty one, and it's certainly not attractive, but it's a world. Where the game falls apart are the guns. It's not their design, as the mixture of real firearms and hobbled together weapons fits the setting perfectly, but in how inadequate they often feel. The game's fiction explains the bullets with lower than normal gunpowder, but even with normal bullets headshots don't mean much. It can often take as many as six shots to take a character down.

There were multiple times it seemed as if bullets had no effect, and that often happened during the animations were enemies were staggering or trying to hide. It seems as if your human opponents are able to kill you much easier than you can kill them. That's part of the charm of the game, sure, but it often feels cheap and unbalanced.

Combine this with the lack of quick saves and checkpoints that often happen after multiple large firefights, and you may find yourself ready to quit on more than one instance. When a review plays a game, we tend to go for longer sessions than people do for pleasure, which makes problems like this more pronounced. Walking away, going to sleep, and beginning again fresh may make these issues seem less important. When you're on deadline and you continue to crash across a scene like waves on rocks? Mice may be thrown.

The odd, but cute girl at the bookstore

This game has its share of flaws, but if the idea of exploring a bleak version of a future Moscow appeals to you.. and you found STALKER to be just a bit much, this is worth your time. After fighting a series of hulking beasts I barely survived, only to find one of them had smashed my gas mask. While gasping for air, I began frantically searching for a replacement mask. The search was fruitless, and I had to restart from an earlier checkpoint.

It felt great. You can't just win your firefights, you have to ensure your continued survival. There is a supernatural aspect to the game that's intensely unsettling, especially in the opening scenes. One character notes that there are new rules in this new world, and no one seems to understand what they're seeing. There is a striking sequence with a young child, and a man that seemed to have an uncanny grasp of the roads between this world and the next. The story, in other words, is much better than you may expect.

Many may be annoyed at the shortcomings, but the same number are going to fall in love. This is a startlingly original and high-quality title with impressive graphics and sometimes subtle mood. Depending on your pace, this could easily take over ten hours to beat, and a second playthrough is not out of the question.

If nothing else. Metro 2033 makes the mine cart level exciting again. This is a game that can leave you out of breath, encased in dread, and completely entranced.